§31-20-10. Regional jail and correctional facility authority
funds.
(a) The Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority may
create special funds in the State Treasury to identify various
revenue sources and payment of specific obligations. These funds
may be used for purposes that include, but are not limited to, the
construction, renovation or repair of specific facilities, cash
control, facility maintenance and the individual operations
accounts of facilities operated by the authority. The authority
may create other separate accounts within these funds that it
determines are necessary for the efficient operation of the
authority.

(b) Revenues deposited into these funds shall be used to make
payments of interest and shall be pledged as security for bonds,
security interests or notes issued or lease-purchase obligations
entered into with another state entity by the authority pursuant to
this article.

(c) Whenever the authority determines that the balance in
these funds is in excess of the immediate requirements of this
article, it may request that the excess be invested until needed.
In this case, the excess shall be invested in a manner consistent
with the investment of temporary state funds. Interest earned on
any money invested pursuant to this section shall be credited to
these funds.

(d) If the authority determines that moneys held in these funds are in excess of the amount needed to carry out the purposes
of this article, it shall take any action that is necessary to
release the excess and transfer it to the General Revenue Fund of
the State Treasury.

(e) These funds consist of the following:

(1) Amounts raised by the authority by the sale of bonds or
other borrowing authorized by this article;

(2) Moneys collected and deposited in the State Treasury which
are specifically designated by Acts of the Legislature for
inclusion in these funds;

(3) Contributions, grants and gifts from any source, both
public and private, which may be used by the authority for any
project or projects;

(4) All sums paid by the counties pursuant to subsection (h)
of this section; and

(5) All interest earned on investments made by the state from
moneys deposited in these funds.

(f) The amounts deposited in these funds shall be accounted
for and expended in the following manner:

(1) Amounts raised by the sale of bonds or other borrowing
authorized by this article shall be deposited in a separate account
within these funds and expended for the purpose of construction,
renovation and repair of correctional facilities, regional jails
and juvenile detention and correctional facilities for which need
has been determined by the authority;

(2) Amounts deposited from all other sources shall be pledged
first to the debt service on any bonded indebtedness, including
lease-purchase obligations entered into by the authority with
another state entity or other obligation incurred by borrowing of
the authority;

(3) After any requirements of debt service have been
satisfied, the authority shall requisition from these funds the
amounts that are necessary to provide for payment of the
administrative expenses of this article;

(4) The authority shall requisition from these funds, after
any requirements of debt service have been satisfied, the amounts
that are necessary for the maintenance and operation of regional
jails that are constructed pursuant to the provisions of this
article and shall expend those amounts for that purpose. These
funds shall make an accounting of all amounts received from each
county by virtue of any filing fees, court costs or fines required
by law to be deposited in these funds and amounts from the jail
improvement funds of the various counties. After the expenses of
administration have been deducted, the amounts expended in the
respective regions from those sources shall be in proportion to the
percentage the amount contributed to these funds by the counties in
each region bears to the total amount received by these funds from
those sources;

(5) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this article, sums
paid into these funds by each county pursuant to subsection (h) of this section for each inmate shall be placed in a separate account
and shall be requisitioned from these funds to pay for costs
incurred at the regional jail facility at which each inmate was
incarcerated; and

(6) Any amounts deposited in these funds from other sources
permitted by this article shall be expended in the respective
regions based on particular needs to be determined by the
authority.

(g) (1) After a regional jail facility becomes available
pursuant to this article for the incarceration of inmates, each
county within the region shall incarcerate all persons whom the
county would have incarcerated in any jail prior to the
availability of the regional jail facility in the regional jail
facility except those whose incarceration in a local jail facility
used as a local holding facility is specified as appropriate under
the standards and procedures developed pursuant to section nine of
this article and who the sheriff or the circuit court elects to
incarcerate therein.

(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision (1) of this
subsection, circuit and magistrate courts are authorized to:

(A) Detain persons who have been arrested or charged with a
crime, in a county or municipal jail, specified as appropriate
under the standards and procedures developed pursuant to section
nine of this article, for a period not to exceed ninety-six hours;
or

(B) Commit persons convicted of a crime in a county or
municipal jail, specified as appropriate under the standards and
procedures developed pursuant to section nine of this article, for
a period not to exceed fourteen days.

(h) When inmates are placed in a regional jail facility
pursuant to subsection (g) of this section, the county shall pay
into the Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority Fund a
cost per day for each incarcerated inmate to be determined by the
Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority according to
criteria and by procedures established by legislative rules
proposed for promulgation pursuant to article three, chapter
twenty-nine-a of this code and as established in section ten-a of
this article to cover the costs of operating the regional jail
facilities of this state to maintain each inmate. The per diem
costs for incarcerating inmates may not include the cost of
construction, acquisition or renovation of the regional jail
facilities: Provided, That each regional jail facility operating
in this state shall keep a record of the date and time that an
inmate is incarcerated and a county may not be charged for a second
day of incarceration for an individual inmate until that inmate has
remained incarcerated for more than twenty-four hours. After that,
in cases of continuous incarceration, subsequent per diem charges
shall be made upon a county only as subsequent intervals of
twenty-four hours pass from the original time of incarceration.